Dystopian SF meets extreme Survivor in The Hunger Games, and its sequel, Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins. In the far-future, the United States no longer exists. Instead, a nation called Panem has risen from the remnants, in which twelve districts are ruled by the oppressive Capitol. As punishment for their rebellion 75 years ago, the [...]
Monthly Archive for March, 2010
sunday linkfest
Posted in linktopia on Mar 28th, 2010
How do authors really break into publishing? Is it nepotism? The Secret Handshake? Stalking agents? Brewing potions from eye of newt and toe of frog? Author Jim C. Hines took a survey, published the results and busted a few myths along the way. I’m happy to note that I still have several years to break [...]
friday fun: coloring
Posted in friday fun on Mar 26th, 2010
Coloring is often dismissed as boring busywork or a creativity-killer (and when it’s forced on a child, I agree it can be so). That said, my children will often want to color of their own volition. I find coloring to be soothing, allowing my hands to work, pencils and markers gliding across the page, while [...]
art in the family
Posted in creativity, kids at play on Mar 23rd, 2010
Sir I. has been into rockets in a big way. Here’s the one he made at the library’s art program: Miss M. made this sun (with salt dough) when we were studying Mexico: Both older kids drawing together: This is the circle-inspired art I did for the February creative challenge at daisy yellow: Doodling, and [...]
sunday linkfest
Posted in linktopia on Mar 21st, 2010
In case we needed more help figuring out this whole writing gig, here are 54 tips from writers, for writers. I especially liked the quotes from Kurt Vonnegut. Seth Godin on making the distinction between “not good” and “not for me”. Something I have to keep in mind when airing my often strong opinions about [...]
friday fun: going outside
Posted in friday fun on Mar 19th, 2010
It’s warm, sunny and GORGEOUS out here. My Friday Fun was taking the kids to the park after lunch. The last time we were there (before all the snow and cold weather), Baron was not yet walking. It was so much fun to see him crunching through gravel and clambering over the wooden structures to [...]
I’m back from five-day trip, visiting my sister in sunny California. I scheduled two posts to go live while I was gone (ah, I love being able to post to my blog while I’m asleep or driving or shopping) so you might not have noticed that I was even gone. Here’s a quick rundown on [...]
friday fun: names
Posted in friday fun on Mar 12th, 2010
Ah, names. Sometimes characters come to you with names neatly affixed; other times you have to sweat and curse and cudgel your brains and the dictionary, trying to pin down that elusive Perfect Name. When I’m in the position of having to come up with a name, the first thing I do is to look [...]
Play: a review
Posted in inspiration, reading, reviews on Mar 11th, 2010
Play is something I’ve become in very interested in since having kids and ditched my left-brain-focused career plans for a more creative vocation (that would be writing stories *grin*). I picked “writer at play” for my tagline, not because I am a super-playful person but because I need the reminder to keep from turning the [...]
titular
Posted in reading, writing process on Mar 9th, 2010
Here at the playground, I spent a couple of posts talking about that bane of my writing life–coming up with titles! Since I want that process to be less painful with more satisfying results, I went through my booklists to find templates or formulae for titles. First off, we have the one-word titles. These include [...]